Texas Hotel Records was an independent record label based in Santa Monica, California, which released records by singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt, [1] Henry Rollins and the Rollins Band from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. [2] The label, which started as a record store and later expanded into a record label, was founded by Michael Meister and Susan Farrell. [3]
Texas Hotel was voted Hot Record Label of the year by Rolling Stone in 1989. At the time, it was planning to release a solo album by Michael Stipe, and the band Poi Dog Pondering, which was signed to the label, had attracted attention. However, the solo album was not released, and Poi Dog Pondering moved to Columbia Records, without major success. Texas Hotel Records closed in 1996. [4]
Henry Lawrence Garfield, better known as Henry Rollins, is an American musician, singer, actor, presenter, comedian, and activist. He hosts a weekly radio show on KCRW, is a regular columnist for Rolling Stone Australia, and was a regular columnist for LA Weekly.
Rollins Band was an American rock band formed in Van Nuys, California. The band was active from 1987 to 2006 and was led by former Black Flag vocalist Henry Rollins. They are best known for the songs "Low Self Opinion" and "Liar", which both earned heavy airplay on MTV in the early-mid 1990s.
Mother Love Bone was an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988. The band was active from 1988 to 1990. Frontman Andrew Wood's personality and lyrics helped to catapult the group to the top of the burgeoning late 1980s/early 1990s Seattle music scene. Wood died only days before the scheduled release of the band's debut album, Apple, thus ending the group's hopes of success. The album was finally released a few months later.
Roger Kynard "Roky" Erickson was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member and the leader of the 13th Floor Elevators and a pioneer of the psychedelic rock genre.
Guy Charles Picciotto is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and producer from Washington, DC.
James Victor Chesnutt was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little, was released in 1990, but his breakthrough to commercial success did not come until 1996 with the release of Sweet Relief II: Gravity of the Situation, a charity record of alternative artists covering his songs.
Giant Sand is an American band from Tucson, Arizona. Its most constant member is singer-songwriter Howe Gelb. The group started as Giant Sandworms in the late 1970s post-punk and paisley underground scenes. They later shortened their name and developed an idiosyncratic sound rooted in alternative country but touching on a wide range of other styles and featuring Gelb's beatnik-influenced vocals and songwriting.
Poi Dog Pondering is an American musical group, noted for its cross-pollination of diverse musical genres, including various forms of acoustic and electronic music. Founded in Hawaii in 1984 by Frank Orrall, initially as a solo project. In 1985 Orrall formed the first line-up of PDP to perform its first concert; at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The band then embarked on a yearlong Street Performance Busking tour across North America, eventually settling in Austin, Texas in 1987, where they recorded their first three albums. In 1992, the band relocated, this time to Chicago, Illinois, where they began to incorporate Orchestral arrangements & elements of Electronic, House Music and Soul music into their Acoustic Rock style. The membership of Poi Dog Pondering has evolved from album to album, with Frank Orrall being the constant since the inception.
Syd Straw is an American rock singer and songwriter. The daughter of actor Jack Straw, she began her career singing backup for Pat Benatar, then took her distinct voice to the indie/alternative scene and joined the ever-evolving line-up of Golden Palominos from 1985 through 1987, appearing on their second and third albums. Straw was a frequent lead singer and occasional co-songwriter for the group, which was spearheaded by drummer Anton Fier and also featured vocal turns by Michael Stipe, Matthew Sweet, Don Dixon, Jack Bruce and others. She left the group in 1987 to establish her solo career.
Abra Moore is an American folk-styled rock singer-songwriter. Moore was a founding member of the Hawaiian rock band Poi Dog Pondering, but left to pursue a solo career after the group's move to Texas in the late 1980s. Her 1997 album Strangest Places included the hit "Four Leaf Clover", which received airplay in Midwest U.S. radio markets and VH1 and MTV2 rotation, and charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
Candy Harlots were an Australian band from Sydney, active between 1987 and 1995. They also released material as Helter Skelter and The Harlots. According to rock music historian Ian McFarlane they were, "an unashamedly macho, decadent lot, with a black leathers 'n' chains and gutter-rock image played out over an entertaining brand of hard-edged rock 'n' roll." They enjoyed Top 20 chart success with their March 1992 EP Foreplay on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Singles Chart and obtained a Top 40 chart position with their sole full-length album Five Wicked Ways in May 1992.
Mark Nelson Chesnutt is an American country music singer and songwriter. Between 1990 and 1999, he had his greatest chart success recording for Universal Music Group Nashville's MCA and Decca branches, with a total of eight albums between those two labels. During this timespan, Chesnutt also charted twenty top-ten hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, of which eight reached number one: "Brother Jukebox", "I'll Think of Something", "It Sure Is Monday", "Almost Goodbye", "I Just Wanted You to Know", "Gonna Get a Life", "It's a Little Too Late", and a cover of Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing". His first three albums for MCA along with a 1996 Greatest Hits package issued on Decca are all certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); 1994's What a Way to Live, also issued on Decca, is certified gold. After a self-titled album in 2002 on Columbia Records, Chesnutt has continued to record predominantly on independent labels.
Life Time is the first full-length studio album by Rollins Band, fronted by ex-Black Flag singer, Henry Rollins. The album was produced by Ian MacKaye, well known in the genre of hardcore punk for his work with Minor Threat and as co-owner of the Dischord record label. MacKaye was also a childhood friend of Rollins, who acted as a roadie for MacKaye's band The Teen Idles. It was originally released in 1987 and included four live tracks recorded in Kortrijk, Belgium in October 1987. It was subsequently re-mastered and re-released in 1999 without the live tracks, but with the addition of three session tracks from the Do It album of 1987. The 2014 reissue on Dischord includes the live tracks but not the bonus tracks included on the 1999 reissue.
Originally from Perth, Western Australia, Kryptonics were a melodic pop punk band that were active between 1985 and 1992. Kryptonics were contemporaries of notable Perth bands The Stems, The Triffids & The Bamboos, and released a series of 7" singles and 12" vinyl EPs on a number of Australian independent record labels.
BOB were an indie pop band from North London, England, formed in 1985.
Susan Voelz is an American musician. A Grammy Award-nominated vocalist, violinist, and composer. She is a member of the alternative rock band, Poi Dog Pondering. She has also worked with a long list of famous musicians.
Wild Pumpkins at Midnight was an Australian blues/roots rock band which formed in Tasmania in 1984, with Debra Manskey on vocals and guitar, Dan Tuffy on bass guitar and vocals and Michael Turner on guitar and vocals.
Little is the debut album by Vic Chesnutt, released in 1990. Produced by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, it was Chesnutt's first solo release. The album was re-released on July 5, 2004, on the New West Records label and included five bonus tracks.
Downy Mildew was an American folk pop/alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California active from 1984 to 1995.
"Ghost Rider" is a song by the protopunk band Suicide appearing on their debut album. The song is based on the Marvel Comics character.